By Caitlin McGlade |The Arizona Republic
The Bureau of Indian Affairs director on Wednesday condemned a bill that would prohibit more casinos from opening in metro Phoenix, saying that the measure singled out one tribe.
Director Michael Black told members of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs that the legislation would bar the Tohono O’odhams from using reservation land for a casino like other tribes.
The non-voting hearing was about a bill that Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., introduced in April to ban gaming on newly acquired reservation land until 2027. The measure would stop the Tohono O’odhams from building a planned casino at 95th and Northern avenues because the land has not yet been designated a reservation.
Franks last year sponsored a similar bill that passed in the House but never got a vote in the Senate.
Franks called this bill the “Keep the Promise Act of 2013,” a label Tohono O’odham Chairman Ned Norris deemed “deeply offensive.”
“The title of this legislation suggests that I and my people are liars and cheats,” Norris said.
Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community President Diane Enos spoke in support of the bill, because her tribe, as well as others, oppose another Valley casino.
(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents leaders of the state House and Senate in the lawsuit against the casino.)
